Susan G. Komen Doesn't Have A Problem With Cancer, As Long As It's Pink

• Susan G. Komen for the Cure disgraced itself in 2012 under the policy leadership of "pro-life" Republican wingnut (and Sarah Palin favorite!) Karen Handel, when it decided to go to war with Planned Parenthood and be on the wrong side of the war on women. It was a disaster for the supposed breast cancer cure advocate, and the organization has never recovered. And this certainly won't help:  

  The Houston-based company Baker Hughes is selling 1,000 pink-painted drill bits as a “reminder of the importance of supporting research, treatment, screening and education to help find the cures for this disease," and will donate $100,000 to Komen. The company's website also urges visitors to "Do your bit to support Komen by making a donation today." The company is involved in hydraulic fracturing operations, a controversial process used to tap into oil and gas reserves.

  Hydraulic fracturing operations, also known as "fracking," which, contrary to popular wingnut mythology, is actually not good for the environment , and, as Huffington Post notes, " some studies have found increased cancer rates in areas of oil and gas development."

  Hey! Cancer. Isn't that supposed to be the very thing Komen is, like trying to cure? But whatev, those pink drill bits will give Komen MONEY!!!! So as long as you put some pink on it, it's okay. And Komen is insisting that there's no conclusive evidence linking fracking and cancer, so go ahead and buy those pink bits. For the Cure^TM. Which is some kind of bullshit.

  The advocacy group Breast Cancer Action said in a statement that the drill bit was the "most ludicrous piece of pink sh*t" they’ve seen all year.

  Yup, bullshit all right. But at least it's pink.

•  This is a true story:  

  This morning I went into the Arrow Cafe here in Tecumseh to give myself a special treat of “Somebody Else Making My Breakfast.” It was about 9: 30 or so.

  I ran smack into a headline on the front page of the Daily Oklahoman that rested prettily on the waiting bench. That headline was at least three inches high. ALL CAPS! Seriously. It said something like, “SAME SEX MARRIAGE LEGAL IN OKLAHOMA.”

  The kind of satisfied smile that you get when you win a long, hard fought battle spread across my weathered old face.

  Heh. The tide was turning.

  You should read go read all of it because it is lovely. Also, because it is written by our very own Yr Editrix's commiemom. Also, if you agree that it is very lovely -- which you will because it is -- you can become an Honorary Pott County Dem, WITH MONEY! 

• We know that evolution is just a theory, but:  

  Until recently, ecologists trying to solve the mystery of invasive species paid relatively little attention to their origins, focusing instead on factors that might be helping them in their new homes. The invaders, for example, may benefit from leaving behind their enemies: Without the parasites and predators adapted to killing them, they’re free to multiply with abandon.

  Or a newly arrived species may thrive because humans have made the new ecosystems vulnerable to invasion. Cutting a forest into fragments or loading a lake with fertilizer tears apart the ecological web, making it easier for new species to slip into the gaps.

  But as far back as the 19th century, some scientists saw a role for evolution. In “The Origin of Species,” Charles Darwin wrote that we shouldn’t be surprised by native species “being beaten and supplanted by the naturalised productions from another land.” [...]

  Before Dr. [Jason D.] Fridley and Dr. [Dov F.] Sax met in 2007, each had become convinced that Darwin might be right. When they discovered they shared the same belief, they joined forces to test Darwin’s idea. [...]

  Invasive plants, they found, were more likely to have evolved in habitats with a great diversity of competing species. Darwin was right: Some plants have evolved to be fighters.

  Or maybe God just made it to seem that way. Who knows?

• From Happy Nice Time People comes a tale of racism, sexism, Nickelodeon kids TV shows ... what more could you want?

  There’s this guy -- Mathew Klickstein -- who’s not really anybody in particular, but he wrote a book calledSLIMED! An Oral History of Nickelodeon’s Golden Ageso that makes him an expert of sorts on late 1980s-early 1990s children’s television.

  Oh, and he’s also a racist, sexist scumbag. [...]

  You might not like this or care, but it’s very hard to be a man in the publishing world. No one talks about that. My agent: woman. My editor: woman. My publicist: woman. The most successful genre is young adult novels — 85% of which are written by women.

  There is so much more. Check it out. But be sure to take the barf bucket with you. You'll need that too.

•  Selfies at Holocaust memorials. Because LOL and YOLO and IKR, San Antonio Spurs sportsball guy?

  [Danny] Green's selfie at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe initially included the caption: "You know I had to do it one time lol #Holocaust"

  Hey, you know who else laughed at -- oh never mind.

• You kids these days might not know this, but the showSaturday Night Liveused to be pretty funny, and Jan Hooks, who died on Thursday, was one of its funniest cast members. You can watch some of her most memorable performances here,although in our opinion, her role as one half of the singing Sweeney sisters, with Nora Dunn, was HI-larious, and nothing beats the time they serenaded Paul Simon with a medley of his greatest hits. We could not find the video ANYWHERE on the interwebs, but at least there's this audio recording. It's awesome.

  We were but a kid when this aired, and we canstillrecite certain lines from memory. Thank you, Jan Hooks.